Tour agency penalised for delayed flight

The Court of Appeal has confirmed rulings by the Consumer Claims Tribunal and ordered a travel agency to compensate a number of clients who lost a day of their cruise because of an Air Malta flight delay.

The case had been instituted against Mondial Travel Agency by by Alfred and Josephine Zarb, Margaret Grech Mallia, Wilfred Schembri and Alfred Zammit.

They told the court that they had booked a 12-day Scandinavian and Baltic cruise through the agency. The principal attraction of the tour was the passage of the vessel through the Kiel Canal. However, when they went to Malta Airport to fly to Dover, England to embark on the cruise, they were told that the flight had been delayed and they were told to fly on the following day to Germany and to embark there.

As a result, the complainants missed one day of the cruise and missed out on the passage through the Kiel Canal.

The Consumer Claims Tribunal found in favour of the complainants and ordered the agency to pay a total of €1,500 in compensation.

Mondial Travel appealed to the Court of Appeal (in its inferior jurisdiction) presided over by Mr Justice Philip Sciberras, leading that it could not be held liable for damages to the complainants as the flight had been delayed through Air Malta and through no fault of the agency. But the court ruled against the agency and declared that the risk of a delayed flight was part of the business of a tour operator. It was not acceptable for the agency to pass this risk to its consumers.